Achi news desk-
What is the role of NWT media in covering evacuation?
It’s one of the questions being explored by the City of Yellowknife, as wildfire season approaches and the city’s review of last year’s evacuations continues.
The majority of the Yellowknife media were not present in the city after the evacuation order was issued last August. Most left with the public.
For some who spoke to CBC News, it is the media’s responsibility to be present and document major climate change events first-hand – but only with the appropriate equipment and training. For others, there is little to be gained from being present and the more likely scenario is that the media are using up valuable resources.
Rebecca Alty, the mayor of Yellowknife, said that’s a difficult balancing act for an area under an evacuation order.
He said the media had an important role, but with last year’s evacuation reaching international news outlets, restrictions would be needed.
“Is every media outlet in the world?” she said.
“Or could it be done by a couple of journalists who shared the news?”
Alty said journalists with proper security training would make the situation safer, but there is still very little food and medical care available under an evacuation order.
Caban Radio
Throughout the evacuation of Yellowknife, residents listened to the media for daily wildfire updates. One Yellowknife outlet, Cabin Radio, published live blogs and up-to-the-minute updates – an approach that drew widespread praise within the territory and across Canada.
Cabin Radio editor Ollie Williams led that coverage from hundreds of kilometers away in Fort Simpson.
“Frankly, as far as I can tell, there are very few reasons for Cabin Radio to be the setting for fireworks,” he said.
Williams said he had received feedback from his audience, who appreciated the attention given to highway conditions, how to access financial resources and a sense of when they could come home.
“All those questions are the ones we spent most of our days answering, as they evolved over time,” he said.
During the evacuation of Yellowknife, there was a common online rumor that mass looting was taking place while the city was empty. Although the police have repeatedly made public announcements that this was not the case, that there were individual incidents but it was not a widespread problem, the rumors continued.
Williams said he doesn’t think having a reporter on site would have made much of a difference.
“You hardly drive around every residential area yourself and then tell everyone, ‘Don’t worry – I’ve driven around the whole of Yellowknife and nothing has been looted,’ would you be sure?”
Williams said there are situations where journalists need to be present in a dangerous situation.
But he said he would never put one of his reporters in that scenario he wasn’t prepared for.
Wildfire training
Jesse Winter, a freelance photographer and journalist working in BC, had the unique experience of being embedded with BC wildfire crews last year and covering them from the fire line.
He described this as a kind of unofficial pilot project that BC was testing. He won the CJF-Edward Burtynsky Award for Climate Photojournalism for his coverage of this.
In order to gain this access, he completed a significant amount of wildfire safety training, to the extent that he has the same wildfire prevention and entrapment avoidance training as many contractors who work with fire crews.
This access came after years of requests for access.
“At first, I was like, ‘Why can’t you just let me in, let me show, it’ll be fine,'” Winter said, but over time he understood why.
“You might only have one way in, one way out… If you do something wrong or get into trouble on that way, not only could you cause yourself a problem, you might also causes a problem for firefighters – they could get trapped behind you if your vehicle gets stuck,” he said.
Winter said it was important for the media to cover the effects of climate change directly, rather than relying on handouts issued by the government.
“[The public] want to be able to trust that information and have an independent version of it that they know is independent is going to make them more likely to trust that material, than if it’s just the same stock images, distribution material and provided by the fire services and we’re just regurgitating what they’re saying all the time,” said Winter.
He said, for one thing, it can help people understand the seriousness of a situation and in some cases recognize the need to evacuate. But it can also help people understand how wildfires are fought.
“There’s a growing lack of trust among the public,” Winter said of the BC wildfire service.
“It’s not entirely the fire service’s fault, I think it’s driven by a number of things, not the least of which is the general explosion of misinformation and disinformation and conspiracy thinking in general .”
A number of conspiracy theories have emerged in recent years that the government starts fires on purpose. Part of this stems from a misunderstanding around preventive measures which firefighters use, such as planned ignition, also known as back burning. That is where fire is deliberately used to burn fuel in the face of an approaching fire to slow or contain it.
But with limited access to see and cover these operations, the media faces challenges in explaining the procedure to the public. Winter said his access to operations like this can help people understand these processes.
Another issue he said he faced was that people who lose their homes often claim publicly that fire services have stopped protecting their community, when this is often not the case.
“I certainly have never seen that, and what I have seen is firefighters risking their lives to protect people and property,” Winter said.
What training is available for journalists?
CBC North is the largest media outlet in the NWT
When the evacuation order went out, his staff were instructed to leave and those who remained were not allowed to work. CBC North reached out to a number of people within CBC to get clarity on the evacuation rules, but it was not clear whether last year’s rule came from the CBC or the territorial government.
Shiral Tobin is CBC’s director of journalism for BC
When parts of Kelowna, BC threatened by wildfire that prompted evacuations affecting thousands of people, Tobin said reporters have stayed to cover the situation, and they have in previous years in other areas of B.C.
When asked about the training reporters receive to be in these dangerous locations, Tobin said there is a training course available to CBS journalists called Domestic News Safety.
The one day course has no mention of wildfire safety in its description.
For the NWT, Tobin said she doesn’t have all the details on it, but added that the CBC is proactively communicating with officials in each region to improve access and communication.
“In Canada, we have the legal right to be there and report in the public interest,” he said.
“And when we look at climate change, when we look at the reality of climate change on vulnerable communities, these are things that would go unseen if journalists were not given the access that we are entitled to under Canadian law. “
What is the law in NWT?
CBC North contacted the territorial government regarding media access to areas under evacuation orders and whether they are considered essential.
In an unsigned email, NWT cabinet communications wrote that the NWT Emergency Management Act does not define what an essential worker is.
This is the action used in the event of an evacuation order.
“Decisions regarding essential staff will be decided on the basis of the incident. The ability to accommodate safety and rapid exit strategies for additional individuals outside of those needed for the immediate incident may be limited,” the email said.
The territorial government is not opposed to having media on the line of fire “as long as the proper security considerations and coordination in accordance with the ongoing operations are carried out” the email says.
“Ultimately, the final decision to have other people around the fire line is in the hands of the on-site incident manager on a case-by-case basis.”
The email said it is usually the municipality’s responsibility to order an evacuation.
But Alty, the mayor of Yellowknife, said in last year’s case it was the territory that declared the state of emergency. He added that if the municipality declares one in emergencies in the future, it does not have the same power to restrict travel to or from an area.
“When a local government declares an evacuation order it is a communication tool and cannot be used to force anyone who is unwilling to evacuate in an emergency,” he said.
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